Mame: Lansbury vs Ball

Oh dear, I see that this thread has been tagged as "elder gay." Not surprising, I guess.

Yeah R1, why don't you go see what is happening at the Frankie Grande thread.

He makes some good points, but he needs an editor. First, he doesn't know how to properly pronounce Rosalind Russell's name. Then he says that "Here's Lucy" was in the top 30 "for its timeslot." Does he think there were 30 shows in its timeslot in the '60s? And then he seems to blame everything bad about Lucy's performance on her, where surely some belongs to the director.

Lucy's voice is very underrated. And it fits perfectly for the film. As Lucy stated at the time, Mame is supposed to be a big partier. It doesn't make sense for her to have a voice like Julie Andrews.

She should have cut an album of standards or blues songs.

With time Lucy's performance is being recognized for the triumph it was. The leaden film directed by the inexperienced Gene Saks unfortunately let her down. If George Cukor had been at the helm as originally planned, it would have meant an Oscar for Lucy.

You know he's a moron when he start analyzing "Bosom Buddies". He objects to Lucy's three gestures without acknowledging that Lucy was reacting to each thing that Bea Arthur says. When you see it laid out the way he does, you realize that Lucy's actually pretty good, excepting that voice.

Im no musical queen, I really couldn't care less. Lucy though has no voice at all.

Ethel was much better in her Italian epic, "Bitter Grapes."

Never seen this. Any good?

It has its moments, but it’s no [italic]Bedknobs and Broomsticks[/italic].

I saw it again recently and was surprised how little of the film's issue really fall on Lucy's shoulders. I don't think Mame needs to be any particular age since it's not like it talks about her having children or going through menopause, so I'm not sure that's an issue. Would I prefer a bigger, more robust vocal performance? Absolutely, but Lucy does the best she can with a movie that has no pace at all. It's horribly directed and there's no flair or excitement. Almost every musical number feels like a dirge. If your leading lady isn't one to hold notes, you speed up the songs, not slow them down.

Gene Saks is the same Director who directed Angie on Broadway.